In this op-ed, writer Dennis Tang tackles President Donald Trump’s pledge to aid the rebuilding of Notre-Dame, and what phrases like "our culture" and "Western civilization" say about identity and compassion in America.

The Trump administration has dragged its feet over the ongoing lack of access to clean drinking water in Flint, Michigan, where a predominantly black population has been seeking relief for more than five years. After three African-American churches in Louisiana were recently burned down, events determined to have been arson, Trump said nothing.

The list goes on and on, but you get the point. For such a chatterbox, this president doesn’t seem to be very keen on saying or doing much when it doesn’t suit his ends.

So it was noteworthy that when a fire ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, France, on Monday, Trump offered our nation’s assistance almost immediately. It was certainly a more generous response than he’d had earlier in the day, when he confidently suggested on Twitter, “Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out” — in other words, drop tons of water from the sky onto a structure whose construction began in the 12th century. And while most of us would agree that helping to rebuild one of the world's historical landmarks is a good cause, all aid comes at the expense of something else.

It's something this president is particularly attuned to, having on numerous occasions railed against the bill the United States foots to help other people, foreign people, and how such aid is a bad deal for us and so horrible, and very, very unfair. So when Trump does freely offer America's money to an overseas cause, it means something.

"That is a part of our growing up, it’s a part of our culture, it’s a part of our lives," Trump said at an event in Minnesota, while the fire was still blazing. "That’s a truly great cathedral."

Dissecting what Trump and other conservative voices consider to be our culture, whom they consider to be us, can tell you volumes. Right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro said the quiet part just a little louder when he tweeted that Notre-Dame is “a magnificent monument to Western civilization.” “Western civilization” being, of course, a favored euphemism of many on the right for white culture — as if gothic architecture and the works of Aristotle prove once and for all the superiority of those with certain skin tones. (Shapiro, for his part, has also tried to pass the buck on current ills, taking the classic “blame Obama” tack in response to the crisis in Flint.)

Somehow, or perhaps inevitably, the attention of those on the right found its way to their latest favorite target of irrational hatred and persecution, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Her statement about the burning of Notre-Dame was derided for what was perceived as reducing the structure to “art and architecture,” even though that’s what it is, and even though she also referred to it as a “wonder” just one sentence later. The tweet was met with criticism and hatred, with one viral tweet comparing her perceived disrespect for religious monuments to that of ISIS, which partially destroyed the ancient city of Palmyra. (And what’s one of the origins of the architecture of the glorious marker of Western civilization that is Notre-Dame? The decidedly non-Western, non-Christian region of 5th-century Syria.)

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This comes on the heels of Trump tweeting footage of Rep. Omar cut with footage of the September 11 attacks, spurring a wave of hatred and death threats against her. When asked by CNN if he regretted that tweet, Trump replied blithely, "No, not at all.”

A Muslim-American congresswoman, a representative of the great American state of Minnesota, obviously isn’t one of us in the eyes of far too many.

As always, it is hard to know whether Trump is placating his supporters with such messaging or just subconsciously mirroring their attitudes in his seemingly warped yet shrewd mind. Is he a racist, or merely voted in by racists? It’s a question hardly worth analyzing at this point. The only necessary answer is "yes."

“Must act quickly!” Trump tweeted, while the fire raged at Notre-Dame, with an urgency he likely could never muster for a million other, bigger problems.

It's not hard to imagine that he would understand the loss of a big and beautiful building, gilded or otherwise, better than the suffering of people from classes and of colors he rarely encounters and acknowledges even less. To Trump, the suffering of the kinds of people he doesn't care about is apparently a footnote or a fiction; something that can be waved away with a hand, with an alternative fact.

When something doesn’t concern him, there’s no amount of danger or responsibility he can’t ignore, explain away, or pawn off on someone else. Puerto Rico has gotten more than enough help, he says, the rest is their own leaders’ fault. Refugees dying in border detainment centers? That’s their own doing. Why are you complaining about police brutality and racism when black unemployment is at an all-time low? Haven't you heard? Aren't you grateful?

But a Christian cathedral in Western Europe, in a first-world nation that hardly needs our money — that’s a different matter to the likes of Trump. Of all the things that need our help, Notre-Dame probably isn’t one of them — nearly a billion dollars was pledged to its restoration in just two days. Which causes, places, and people have the greatest need is different from those our leaders identify with, for whom they feel compassion, and who they think should fend for themselves when trouble strikes. Years into the whole farce of the Trump presidency, it's not a new story, but it's one that bears repeating. When a man appears to be callous toward almost everything that doesn’t his have his name attached to it, what he does choose to stick his neck out for should tell us a lot.